CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles men's basketball team closed out their season with a resounding home victory on Friday night, as Clarion beat PSAC rival IUP 86-78 in Tippin Gym in the 2024-25 finale. It was a post-to-post win for the Golden Eagles, who finished the season 12-14 overall, representing a four-win improvement on last year's total.
From the time the ball went in the air the Golden Eagles were in control, jumping out to a double-digit lead less than four minutes into regulation. The Crimson Hawks drove the deficit back to single digits in the second half but never got closer than nine points as Clarion closed them out.
Four Golden Eagles finished the game in double-figures in scoring, led by
Jeremy Thomas II's 18 points on an impressive 9-of-10 shooting from the field. In doing so he became the first Clarion player to make at least 90 percent of his field goal attempts (with a minimum of eight makes) since Jamar Harrison went 9-of-10 from the field against Lock Haven on Jan. 26, 2011.
Cam Kearney scored 17 points, catching fire in the second half to add to his total, while
Josiah Dow came off the bench for 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
Justice Easter scored 10 points, while
Trey Nelson added nine points to go with 10 assists and three steals.
Thomas and
Gavin Cote stunned the Crimson Hawks with a quick barrage of shots in the first half, with the latter making three-pointers on back-to-back possessions before setting up Thomas for a dunk. Kearney and Easter scored to make it a 12-4 advantage and then Thomas threw down a thunderous one-handed baseline dunk to increase the lead to double digits. Cote drained his third trey of the first half at the 15:16 mark, and Thomas tipped in his own miss 40 seconds later to make it 19-4.
IUP pulled to within 10 points midway through the half but Nelson and Kearney halted the rally with buckets of their own.
Kendon Peebles drove for a make at the 8:03 mark and Dow made a three-pointer from the corner to push the lead to 39-20 with 2:15 to play in the half. He later threw down a dunk with 31 seconds left in the first as Clarion took a 17-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
The closest the Crimson Hawks got in the second half was at the 13:18 mark, with Tyler Grove made a three-pointer to slice the deficit to 51-42. Sarp Furtun made it 58-49 with under 10 minutes to go but Kearney kicked off an 11-0 run with a transition bucket and an and-one. He and Dow sank three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to make it 67-49, and Dow added a two-point jumper with 7:33 to play to make it a 20-point game.
